A recent blog post by Logan Thompson made me think in the direction of “questions to ask your affiliate manager”, but in a slightly different way.

Here are the 3 questions you may have not thought of asking your affiliate program manager:

1. What’s your favorite drink? — Whether it is their favorite latte, or cocktail, or something stronger than that, possessing this bit of information may get you a private commission (that will considerably increase your earnings) some time down the road.
2. What do love doing when not working? — Be it gardening, playing with kids, fishing, golfing, or anything else, finding out about their hobbies and passions is so important! It’s not all about work. In fact, it’s things other than “work” that create stronger and longer-lasting relationships (at least, in my experience).
3. What are the best ways/time to contact you? — Affiliate program managers also have a personal life, and at times may not be able to respond to affiliates right way. Appreciating this, and knowing both the best way to get a hold of them (some will prefer email only, while others are better with phone), and the time when they’re available, saves both parties a lot of headaches.

Important Note: All of the above questions actually work both ways: both as things for affiliates to find out about affiliate program managers, and as questions for affiliate managers to ask affiliates (current or prospective). In one particular case it took me over 4 years of relationship-building (see a poll on the subject here, as well a corresponding post and comments) to finally start working with an affiliate who has then become the top performer in an affiliate program.

If I have missed any other questions (especially the not-so-common ones), feel free to post them below.

There is a book co-authored by Dave Chaffey, Richard Mayer, Kevin Johnston and Fiona Ellis-Chadwick, and entitled Internet Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. In the chapter on Traffic Building the authors spend some time talking about affiliate marketing. One thing that jumps right at me is the following statement:

To manage the process of finding affiliates, updating product information, tracking clicks and making payments, many companies use an affiliate network or affiliate manager such as Commission Junction or Trade Doubler. (p. 388)

The authors also show the following graph to illustrate “the affiliate marketing model”:

It seems that there is a bit of an inconsistency between the quoted sentence and the figure. In the above-quote statement, the words “affiliate network” and “affiliate manager” are used interchangeably (and both affiliate manager and affiliate network’s responsibilities are bundled together); while the graph is bit closer to the truth, saying that it doesn’t have to be an affiliate network, but the whole system may be managed by an independent affiliate program (not “network”!) manager. But even with the graph, there is no explanation of scenarios when an affiliate program is run on a network, but managed by an affiliate program manager, and I really wish the authors elaborated a bit more on the topic of program management.

The problem is that many merchants really confuse affiliate networks for affiliate managers, whereas in the vast majority of situations these are different participants of the process. See a more detailed explanation of the differences in my “Affiliate Networks, OPM Companies, Transaction Fees, and Performance Bonuses” post, as well as in this month’s FeedFront magazine (in my “Choosing an Affiliate network” article on page 32).

Reference: Chaffey, D., Ellis-Chadwick, F., Mayer, R., & Johnston, K. (2006). Internet Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice.

Two affiliates on different sides of the globe (U.S. and Australia) blogged about the same topic during the same week of August 2009. They talked about the things that make the life of an affiliate unnecessarily difficult, and they obviously wanted affiliate program managers to hear them.

I am referring to the “5 Things That Make My Affiliate Life Easier” post by Rae Hoffman, and the “10 Things I Hate About Affiliate Marketing” one by Kirsty McCubbin. Both of these posts are must-reads for every affiliate program manager.

Sam Levenson is known for saying: “You must learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t possibly live long enough to make them all yourself.” I like to re-phrase this utterance with affiliate program management in mind. Affiliate program managers must learn from the mistakes of others precisely because they can end up making them all in their own management, hurting the development of their affiliate program, and their relationship with affiliates, along the way.

Looking through Rae’s and Kirsty’s lists, I’ve boiled their observations down to 7 points, or 7 things that affiliates dislike in affiliate programs. They are:

1. Lack of communication or poor/one-way communication
2. Lack of detailed reporting
3. Lack of linking flexibility
4. Poor quality product feeds
5. Unexpected/unannounced changes
6. Unrealistic/unattainable sales/contest goals
7. Affiliate program managers who fail to put themselves into affiliate shoes [more of a summary of the above points]

Are you guilty of any of the above?

Someone was searching my blog for a phrase “networking with affiliate managers”, and I’ve decided to devote my today’s post to this. There is, in fact, a place where you can discuss affiliate program management questions with colleagues, meeting other affiliate program managers online. It is the Affiliate Program Management group that I run on LinkedIn.

As apparent from the above screenshot, the group currently has over 500 members and includes multiple OPM’s, in-house affiliate program managers, network reps of all major affiliate networks, some affiliates, as well as other online marketing professionals. The focus of the group is on the discussion of issues pertaining to affiliate program management. The official group description says:

This group has been created for affiliate managers (working on in-house or outsourced basis), affiliates, network reps and other affiliate marketers to discuss issues related to the management of the affiliate marketing programs, and to network via LinkedIn.

You may join the group here.  Prior to posting, please read the “Group Policy” and refrain from affiliate recruitment types of posts, respecting the time and objectives of the other group members (largely, your fellow affiliate program managers).

Building a successful affiliate program is in many ways akin to lawn mowing. The mower symbolizes your affiliate program, whereas the lawn is the market. There are three integral elements without which the lawn cannot be mowed effectively, even with the presence of the mower. They are: (i) fuel, (ii) motor oil, and (iii) persistence.

I have just recorded the following video to illustrate this more visually:

In the affiliate program context: (i) affiliates are the force that fuels your program, (ii) affiliate program manager is the one who lubricates, inhibits corosion, and cleans the program out, (iii) and persistence remains the same. Exclude any one element from the equasion, and the system will collapse.

Throughout my own affiliate program management practice, and examining other affiliate managers’ styles and techniques, I have noticed that all successful AMs and OPMs* exhibit the three characteristics that I believe to be the key components of success (not only in affiliate program management, but in any management/leadership). If you want to be a successful manager you want to be:

1) Reachable

Make sure your current and prospective affiliates know where to find you when they have a question to ask. Use all means of communication available out there: from the traditional ones (telephone and e-mail) to the newer ones (instant messengers, Twitter, blog, etc). Being reachable is extremely important.

2) Responsive

Being just reachable is not enough. Affiliates want to work with responsive affiliate managers. Being reachable without being responsive is akin to listening without really hearing. What good is it to have a reachable affiliate manager who is either not capable, or not caring enough, to provide you with the answer, advice or solution.

3) Real

Yes, you want to be real (authentic). Way too many affiliate program managers hide their names and real personalities behind signatures like “Affiliate Support Team” or “Affiliate Management Group”. Why?! I seriously do not see one advantage of being impersonal with your affiliates. They are real people who want to be working with a real person — with real interests and character, authentic personal style, real hobbies and passions, etc, etc. Do not pretend to be anyone else. Be yourself — your real, unique, and therefore, authentic self!

So: Reachable, Responsive and Real are the three R’s that I believe to be the keystones of successful affiliate program management.

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*AM — affiliate (program manager) / OPM — outsourced (affiliate) program manager